Served with a claims notice from the District Court

[Brendan Burgess]

A year ago, a friend of mine got a bill from an accountant for €1,750 for advice. I strongly advised against paying as the advice was very poor. He wrote a detailed letter to the accountant and received no reply.

He got a threatening letter a week ago, which he replied to by sending a copy of his initial response to the Managing Partner in the firm.

Today he has has received a claims notice from the District Court for a fee of €1,750.

I think he has the competence and confidence to defend this himself. I see no point in his hiring a solicitor to defend it and pay legal fees which he probably won't be able to recover.

The process for defending it seems fairly clear-cut

http://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/money_and_tax/personal_finance/debt/court_procedures.html

The worst that can happen is that the accountant actually pursues the case, wins the case, and the judge awards costs against my friend. In that case, he will have to pay the legal costs of the accountant. Is there a scale of legal costs in the District Court?


Brendan

 

[Bronte]

I hope your friend won't blame you if it all goes pear shaped. Does poor advice mean one doesn't have to pay a fee. I don't think that's good grounds not to pay. If the advice was incorrect it would be a different matter. But anything can happen in the District court. I imagine the accountant won't risk his good name being sullied by going to court and being shown to have given poor advice.

 

[Gerry Canning]

Google District court costs ,
If he loses it will be circa 800 , but then maybe expenses for professional accountant to attend court?

I would be slow to go to court.
1. Advice may well have been poor but work was done and I presume at friends behest.
2. District court judges are at best a mixed bunch and decisions too often show as oddish .
3. Rewrite to firm and reluctantly offer circa half in full settlement, and stress disappointment at their poor handling of this .
4. if friends offer not accepted tell them you will vigoursly defend.

I would think accountants will go for 50% since no one wants court.

 

[MrEarl]

Hello,

I would not walk into a District Court without legal representation.

As I understand it, District Court Judges are former Barristers or Solicitors, so breaking from the business that paid their bills in times past may by not hiring legal advisors may not be well received, depending on the judge hearing the case.

Rather than just defend the claim made against him, I would seek to countersue if there is any possible way demonstrate that the bad advice cost your friend. If nothing else, it might frighten the accountants off and prompt them to settle before the day of the hearing.

Assuming your friend wins, they could seek to recover their costs, I expect.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Google District court costs ,
If he loses it will be circa 800 ,

Gerry

Thanks for that. I have found this Schedule of Costs but I am not sure what it means.



Not sure if the fee of €130 is where it is a defended case.


I have also seen this

"The new rules also introduce the application of a new scale of costs payable by the unsuccessful party. The costs have increased slightly but remain insufficient to cover the actual costs incurred for pursuing the debt and so the client will not be indemnified by a cost order. "

So if he hires a solicitor to defend the case, it will probably cost around €1,000 and he will get €130 if he wins.

So he should not hire a solicitor.

Brendan

 

[Gerry Canning]

Up here (I know we are different) you can agree a fee with local solicitor and should be well short of 1,000.
The danger is that without legal representation there may be some anomaly eg he should have agreed fees before hiring accountant and said accountant can show his fees as a standard charge.
Bad advice ? is that an actionable case .

 

[DirectDevil]

I think that it is unwise to try and defend this without proper legal representation. The District Court can be a bit wild West or more akin to rolling a dice

Did the poor advice cause the defendant actual financial loss ? If yes, consider threatening to counterclaim for professional negligence if the quantum of the loss is within the DC jurisdiction.

The counterclaim could be grounded on breach of contract. The breach would be failure to render proper competent professional advice and that would be the professional negligence aspect of matters.

A letter intimating a professional negligence claim and requesting that the matter be referred to the accountant's professional indemnity [PI] insurers might soften their cough. This will receive little or no respect from a legally unrepresented party but if it comes from a solicitor it might be taken more seriously. ( BTW the accountants PI insurers may already know about it as some PI policies provide cover for legal costs for actions against clients for unrecovered fees.)

Legal costs generally follow the event. I don't know what the District Court judges do but elsewhere any decision on costs is at the discretion of the trial judge.

Budget for an appeal to the Circuit Court. With respect to DJs you are more likely to get a better run in the Circuit Court for a matter like this.

I do not know from the details if it is relevant but could the problem with the accountant fall across any of the areas that would form a basis of complaint to their professional body ?

Consider quantum meruit [as much as is deserved]. If some of the performance was proper and adequate the defendant may be expected to pay for that work which was done properly.

Finally, if possible, these things are best settled by negotiation before it all gets out of hand. DC cases are a pain and are sometimes more trouble that a decent High Court case...........

 

[Bronte]

Google District court costs ,
If he loses it will be circa 800 , .

Aren't we confusing two things here. If you go to the District court the judge can only order 'scale' costs ie the ones set down as the amount allowed, which are really low. They are so low no solicitor will go to the District court for you unless you agree to pay them a separate fee, as you mentioned it, the circa € 800. Even if you lose, you will only have to pay the 'scale' costs for the other side, but the other side will separately have to pay their own solicitor. At least that's the way I understand it works.

 

[DirectDevil]

Aren't we confusing two things here. If you go to the District court the judge can only order 'scale' costs ie the ones set down as the amount allowed, which are really low. They are so low no solicitor will go to the District court for you unless you agree to pay them a separate fee, as you mentioned it, the circa € 800. Even if you lose, you will only have to pay the 'scale' costs for the other side, but the other side will separately have to pay their own solicitor. At least that's the way I understand it works.

If you lose and costs are awarded against you I think that your liability is for costs [the scale fees] and outlays on a party and party basis. Suppose that the other side whose costs you are paying called a few witnesses, their fees would come under outlays and be recoverable from the losing party as well as the scale fees. The scale fees really only relate to the solicitors instructions / professional fee.